Fear and Loathing in Geekdom: Star Wars Celebration

This weekend is Star Wars Celebration. This means we’re going to get the low down on everything Star Wars coming our way in the next year or two. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I figured I would take a quick look at what’s scheduled and give everyone a heads up on what to expect and when to expect it regarding some cool stuff on the horizon.

The 40 Years of Star Wars Panel (Thursday 11 am)

Depending on how early this column goes up, you may have to catch it on replay on youtube. This panel is bringing together members of all of the different parts of Star Wars together in what has been said to be a “Don’t Miss” panel. It includes Hayden Christensen, Mark Hamil, Billy Dee William, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm animation guru Dave Filoni, and many others from the films. Originally, I would have passed this off as a cool panel but nothing you absolutely have to see. That was until the official Star WarsShow on Youtube made a very glaring point that if you are at Celebration, this is not to be missed.

What does that mean? Ordinarily I’d say that’s when we are getting the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode 8), but with a panel that varied, this could be a bait and switch for something else really good. And before anyone suggests it, NO! IT’S NOT THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE TRILOGY ON BLU RAY! THERE ARE SO MANY REASONS WHY THAT WON’T HAPPEN YET! QUIT MAKING THIS RUMOR EVERY YEAR! JUST RELAX! IT WILL HAPPEN WHEN IT HAPPENS!

(That being said, if that is announced, I will apologize right away.)

Rebels Season 4 Preview (Saturday, 11am)

If you have been following this column for any length, you know that I have incredible love for Star Wars Rebels. When last we left the crew of the Ghost, they and the Rebel fleet were headed towards Yavin. Best guess, next year, we draw ever closer to Rogue One and it will more than likely be the final season of this iteration of the show. Rebels has a lot of interesting possibilities, especially given how the latest season ended. One thing is for sure, if this is the final season, Kanan and Ezra have to be removed from the board and I’m not sure how I’m going to take that. Feloni has mentioned we’ll get to see the breakdown between the rebels and Saw, intertwining the animation with the film world even more.

Battlefront II (Saturday, 2:30pm)

Battlefront was a nice return to the Star Wars universe for video games but it did feel like it could have been more. Battlefront II is currently promising to be more than it’s predecessor so here’s hoping.

Toy Reveals (big one, Saturday afternoon)

With it already being announced that we’re getting another Force Friday on September 1, this means we’re probably getting our first looks at the Last Jedi toy tie-ins and new Star Wars Black figures. Also expect an announcement of a San Diego Comic Con variant.

Secret Video Game?

Rumor has it that Bioware is working on a new Knights of the Old Republic game that will be a better fit within current cannon. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get some more substantial news about it at Celebration.

New Animated Show?

We know there’s another Star Wars cartoon in the works. We’re not sure what it’s about or when in the time line it will take place. I think we’ll get a peek of it this weekend. I don’t think that peek will reveal anything beyond a cool image or two but I think there will be something. That said, I don’t expect a full announcement until the end of Rebels (so possibly at next year’s Celebration).